Where each one leads

Ford Thunderbird

• Against cars of the same year, the Ford Thunderbird comes out better in New York safety inspections (fails 66% less often than average) than the Hyundai Tiburon (fails 34% more often than average).

Hyundai Tiburon

• On Canada's official test the most frugal 2008 Hyundai Tiburon uses 10.2 l/100 km, the 2005 Ford Thunderbird 13.0.

Only measures that do not depend on how many cars were sold: pass and failure rates against cars of the same age, ratings, fuel use and CO₂. How we compare

At a glance

	Ford Thunderbird	Hyundai Tiburon
Model years in the US safety record	1981–2005	1996–2008
Licensed in the United Kingdom	251	—
On the road in the Netherlands	415	—
In traffic in Finland	167	—

EEA new-car registrations (CC BY 4.0) · DVLA licensed vehicles (OGL v3.0) · RDW (CC0) · Traficom (CC BY 4.0) · generations: Wikidata (CC0).

Reliability and problems

	Ford Thunderbird	Hyundai Tiburon
New York safety inspections failed	0.6%	3.1%
… against cars of the same year	−66%	+34%
US owner complaints	2,357	762
Most complaints about	Engine and engine cooling	Power train
Model year with most complaints	1993 (423)	2003 (328)
US recall campaigns	21	17
Manufacturer service bulletins	890	575
NHTSA defect investigations	40	2

Complaint, recall and bulletin counts grow with the number of cars sold and are not adjusted for it. UK MOT: DVSA anonymised MOT results (OGL v3.0); New York: DMV inspections; complaints, recalls, bulletins and investigations: NHTSA (public domain); odometer: RDW (CC0).

Fuel, emissions and price

	Ford Thunderbird	Hyundai Tiburon
Official combined fuel use, Canada	13.0 l/100 km (2005)	10.2 l/100 km (2008)
Average odometer in Finland	93,000 km	—

Canada: NRCan Fuel Consumption Ratings, most frugal version of the latest year (OGL Canada). Europe: EEA monitoring of new-car CO₂ and on-board fuel meters (OBFCM), CC BY 4.0. Price: RDW catalogue price (CC0). Finland: Traficom (CC BY 4.0).